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Published on: 6/22/2009
Last Visited: 11/3/2009
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Trish Bergin: Moving Ahead
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Trish Bergin may well be a rare breed in the glittery world of television news.
Despite the trappings of celebrity - as in a gated, custom-built house under construction on Long Island and a social network that has included Christine Brinkley and Billy Joel - Bergin is determined to live a low-key, unassuming style of life.
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But, while still living on Long Island, Bergin has come a long way from her own childhood roots.
At the tender age of 31, she is a veteran TV newscaster.
In her decade-plus, on-camera career, she has built a resume that includes Long Island's News 55 and News 12 as well as Channel 2 News.
Last summer, she kicked it up a notch and now serves as weekend co-host of Inside Edition, a nationally syndicated show.
Trish is also the program's fill-in anchor for weekday host and fellow Long Islander, Deborah Norville.
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Her growing visibility on the airwaves notwithstanding, Bergin says she still does her own food shopping and cooking - including preparing and freezing three meals on Sunday in anticipation of a hectic work week.
She also cleans her own home.
And, like many other newly minted moms juggling career and motherhood, the Long Island native anticipates relying on her husband, Randy, an environmental attorney in private practice, and other family members to pitch in and watch their new son, when Inside Edition demands her presence on weekdays.
Her son, born last December, weighed in at nine pounds.
For Bergin, the decision to steer away from a nanny, housekeeper or babysitter is a move inspired by her self-reliant Irish-born parents.
Her late father was a ticket agent at a Long Island Rail Road station, her mother was a real estate agent and has owned a Hamptons window-supply business for the past 15 years.
"My mother didn't have any help, and she raised three kids while working," says Bergin, who grew up in Ronkonkoma with an older brother and sister.
"I just don't want anyone living in my house.
Her career path - at least initially - was also inspired by her upbringing.
A journalism major at SUNY Brockport, Bergin saw herself as a newspaper reporter, thanks to her father's passion for news.
"He read at least three newspapers a day, listened to news radio and then watched the news at 5:00, 6:00 and 11:00," she recalls.
"The news was always a big topic of discussion in our house."
Bergin's segue into television was a matter of being in the right place at the right time.
After a year at Brockport, she transferred to the New York Institute of Technology because of its well-regarded journalism program.
There, Bergin fortuitously took a required course in TV news, which included a stint on the campus station.
A local cable TV executive spotted her on a college program and hired her for a talk show called Extra.
While co-hosting the show ("They worked around my schedule," she says.), Bergin received her undergraduate degree and, armed with a full . scholarship, pursued a master's degree in journalism, also at NYIT Her father's death caused Bergin to leave school one course short of her master's - a situation that prompted her to return to school in January to complete that one course and earn a graduate degree once and for all.
She says the master's will enable her to fall back on teaching when her broadcasting star fades.
"I always look to the long term, because 1 know this industry is very difficult to stay in," says Trish.
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In 1994, about ten days after Extra was cancelled, Bergin signed on with News 55.
"I went there to be a reporter and the station manager gave me the anchor job," she says.
"I was 21 years old, scared and with little experience, and the only training I received was 'When the light goes on, read. ' I felt as though I was five leaps ahead of myself."
After two years, she joined News 12, where she did everything from co-anchor the station's morning newscasts to interview celebrities to file crime and consumer-interest stories.
She was among the first broadcasters at the scene of the TWA Flight 800 crash.
In 1998, with an agent's help, Bergin landed at Channel 2 News as a reporter and fill-in morning anchor.
On her first day, she saw Walter Cronkite in the elevator and stood behind Geraldo Rivera at a soda machine.
The celeb sightings, though exciting, made Bergin question her own readiness for the big league.
"My mother has always been my guiding light and cheerleader," says Bergin, "and she said, 'You are there for a reason.'"
But she credits the job's long hours and pressures with taking a toll on her first marriage, which ended in divorce after two years.
In 2000, Bergin resigned and returned to the more comfy terrain of News 12.
When Inside Edition came calling, Bergin jumped at the chance to go national with her career At the outset, she had wanted to work for both News 12 and Inside Edition, but News 12 dashed that idea, she says.
So, she resigned from the Long Island station and taped her first Inside Edition two months later.
"Going national is what nearly every television journalist aspires to do, so this is exciting for me to reach that goal," she says.
These days, Bergin and her husband are building a 3,OOO-square-foot waterfront home ("with a lemonade porch").
Although she fondly recalls her own childhood days of freely biking from one neighbor's home to another, a gate will enclose her new property for security's sake.
It's the price she pays for having a recognizable face and a boldface name.
"I always wanted neighbors where I could ask to borrow that cup of sugar, but I have had to change my phone number every eight months to a year because someone gets hold of it," she says.
In addition, she has received wedding invitations in her mailbox from strangers It's eerie!") and some have even rung her doorbell.
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"You don't go into rehab because you have a broken heart, but to fix a problem," says Bergin.
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